From everyone breeding Silkies on this thread it seems like everyone is mixing colors. In other words, I always thought breeding chickens was White to White, Black to Black, Partridge to Partridge, Buff to Buff, etc etc. and not Black over Partridge, or Red over White or whatever. For instance, an APA Ameraucana breeding can't have different colors parenting offspring but it seems like Silkie pairings are indiscriminate but still seem to produce a bevy of pure white, pure black, etc.
Can someone educate me?
I'm certainly not experienced enough to be an educator, but I'll share my observations. I think different people breed and raise silkies for different reasons (much the same as people breeding dogs, cats, and other domestic pets).
A lot of people just breed what they have and that's often mixed colors. In this case they are usually not working towards improvement of a specific color or in trying to improve for the purpose of showing. They are just enjoying their pets. These breedings sometimes produce solid white and solid black because of the nature of the genetics that produce white and black birds, but most often the birds have random colors showing. Many of these are truly beautiful birds, but they don't meet the Standard of Perfection and most wouldn't be able to compete as a specific 'standard' color.
Others are breeding specifically for improvement of the breed - which requires keeping colors separated like you describe above, culling heavily, and knowing how to select breeding pairs that will diminish undesirable traits and accentuate desirable traits. This is obviously a lot harder, but these are the breeders who produce the show winners. (some of these people also have project birds to produce new colors, but the same process is involved in terms of selecting pairs and culling heavily).
The only problem with breeding colors and other traits indiscriminately is that even if a bird
appears to be 'standard' (phenotype - visible appearance) the genotype (the genetics that aren't visible) are not pure, so when these birds are bred, even to another bird with good genotype the offspring still may have random colors and patterns and other traits that would not show up in a SQ line of silkies where the desired color and traits have been selected for several generations. This makes it more difficult to find quality birds for breeding programs. That's not a judgment on people who do this. I have bred some adorable (and beautiful) pet quality birds because I don't yet have enough higher quality birds in the right colors nor are my facilities set up yet to keep everyone separate. Some would say I shouldn't do that, but I consider it 'practice' and part of my learning process.
As I said, just my observations - but I'm still new to all of this. I'm interested to hear what others have to add. You also might get different opinions on the genetics and showing thread than you would get on this thread. Hard to say.
